Kiara Johnson
"Key, what's up? Why are you crying?" Jamal asked as he came over and wrapped his arms around me as I cried in the corner.
"I c - can't do this anymore, I just can't." I allowed the tears to roll down my cheeks as I thought about all of the pain I've caused everyone.
"What can't you do, boo?" Mal asked sincerely as he continuously wiped my tears that fell.
"This thing called life," I confessed my true feelings.
"No don't talk like that." He requested. "You're going to be alright."
"No," I cried harder.
Here he was trying to fix my mistakes as he always has. Here he was trying to make me feel better when I felt like shit.
"You're okay, this is all temporary." He rubbed my back attempting to soothe me. "Come with me," he spoke as he wiped the last of my tears.
I simply nodded my head agreeing. He then took my hand leading me out of the large venue. As we left my celebratory party, in which my entire family attended, I couldn't stop thinking about how much this wasn't what I wanted to do.
This is not the life I wanted to live.
Being a doctor was not my dream. I didn't desire for my parents to live vicariously through me. How can an addict be a functional doctor anyway?
"Boo." Mal spoke breaking the silence and my thoughts that took over the car ride.
"Yes," I answered him lowly.
"You're going to be okay, okay?" He asked for reassurance.
"Yes." I grabbed his right hand that was unoccupied and wrapped it around my left hand.
He gave it a small squeeze assuring me that he wasn't leaving me. A few minutes later, we arrived to his condo. We held hands the entire walk until we were inside.
"I'm going to shower, I look a mess." I told him.
"You look as beautiful as you always do, but okay. I'll be here when you get out." He told me as I went directly to his bathroom.
Stripping from my clothes, I turned the shower head on. I climbed in prepared to wash today's filth off of me. Once I was done, I dried off and put my silk robe on before going to find Mal in the living room smoking on his couch.
"Want a hit?" He asked me with low eyes as I kindly declined by shaking my head. "What?" He scoffed. "Bad gyal don't wanna hit?" He joked as he pointed the blunt out to me to take.
"Mal, you're always forcing my bad habits." I chuckled lightly as I took a hit sitting on his lap.
"Slow down," he told me as I took another long pull before passing it back to him.
"We need to go to bed," he spoke as I blew smoke out of my mouth.
"Alrighty," I responded as he patted my thigh so that I could get up.
I walked to his bedroom where I removed my robe and climbed on my side of his bed. Mal stripped from his clothing and went to take a shower.
I relaxed for a bit until I eventually fell asleep.
+
I woke up to the sound of Mal shuffling through papers on his desk. I opened my eyes as he let out a sigh of frustration before he sat down running his hands over his face as he scratched his head.
"What's wrong?" I asked lowly as my voice cracked. I cleared my throat as he looked over at me.
"Nothing, don't worry." He smiled at me. "Did I wake you?"
"Yes but I'm fine." I got up leaning my back against the headboard as I checked my phone. "Everyone's wondering where I disappeared to yesterday," I spoke as I read some of the threatening messages I've received.
"If you don't wanna go to medical school then don't, we can make it work." Mal suggested as he sat at the foot of the bed rubbing my feet through the covers.
This was always his weird morning ritual whenever I slept here.
"Everyone doesn't get into medical school, Mal. Harvard at that. I'm disappointing everyone." I spoke.
"When are you going to do something that makes you happy? Everyday I see you walking around miserable pleasing everyone else. I don't like that, not one bit." He told me.
"I just have to find a job first, you think I can get hired as a painter somewhere? Or should I just really let that dream die?" I cringed at the thought of giving up my passion for painting. "And I need to get checked in to a facility."
"Never stop painting, ever. When I finally get rich if no one else pays you to paint freely, I will. I'm sure you can find a painting gig but that shouldn't be all you're looking for. As far as the facility, I'll find one for you and I'll handle it." Mal spoke forming a smile on my face.
"Really?" I cheesed. "You'll do that?"
"Yes, when I say I got you, I do." He said as he got up from the desk to grab his jacket. "I have an early morning shoot, feel free to come through." He handed me a card with the information on it. "I wanna take you somewhere afterwards as well." He kissed my forehead. "Don't forget to lock up when you leave" he slightly yelled as he disappeared into the living room.
Once I heard the front door close, I got out of bed and grabbed my duffle bag that I left here sometimes to find something to wear. After shuffling through a couple shirts and pants, I found my painkillers and thought about whether to take them or flush them.
Hunger for the urge of feeling great, I swallowed two Vicodin quickly.
"Kiara, what are you doing?" I spoke aloud to myself after I realized what I had done.
I closed the lid on the fresh pill bottle and threw them on the bed along with what I was wearing today. I went to the bathroom to shower and freshen up before I met Mal at his shoot.
After getting dressed fully and putting on light makeup so I wouldn't look like a zombie, I caught an uber to meet Jamal. Once I pulled up to the venue and walked inside, I seen Jamal smirking at this gorgeous girl.
"Key," Mal smiled at me. "Meet Alissa," he introduced her. "Alissa, this is my girl Kiara." She took my hand.
"Nice to meet you" Alissa said as she smiled at me.
"Likewise," I smiled back.
"We were actually just coming off of a break. Let's wrap this up Alissa. More energy please!" He slightly yelled as he took his position behind the camera and did his thing.
Jamal Wynn
After finishing up the shoot, I spotted Kiara sitting in a chair sipping on a water bottle. In order to get her mind off of negative things right now, I decided that I'd take her out to have some fun and let off some steam.
As I started walking towards her, she smiled at me once she noticed I was coming over.
"Great job today!" She told me as I pulled her small figure in for a hug. I squeezed her tight rocking us from side to side before kissing the side of her head.
I just wanted Kiara to always know that I had her back if she ain't think anybody else did. She goes through too much and I just want to be the one to let her know that everything will be okay.
"What's the plans for today?" She asked once I released her from the hug.
"I was thinking we should go let off some steam?" I suggested.
"Sounds good, but where?" She inquired as I just smirked at her.
"Gun range?" I revealed in a questioning tone hoping she'd love the idea.
Our dates were always spontaneous but I've never taken her to a gun range. I'm not sure if she's even interested in touching a gun to be honest.
"We're going to the gun range," Kiara sang as she danced happily.
Once she was done, she followed me out of the building and we both got into my car. I quickly looked up directions to the nearest range and drove there with music playing lowly in the background.
Once we arrived, we spoke to the attendant at the front and asked exactly what we needed to do. After receiving instructions on how to operate a handgun, we purchased time and targets. I choose the criminal, while Kiara chose a zombie. She wasn't for shooting what looked like a person. So she chose a zombie instead. I followed her to the target area hoping she'd find a spot that she liked. Luckily, we weren't exactly near anyone else. We can still hear the shots echoing through the halls but that was it.
"Ready?" I asked Kiara as she hung her target. We both put our headphones on at the same time as I put the ammo in and showed her again how to hold the gun.
Her hands started shaking a little as she held the glock 9mm.
"Relax," I said from a few feet behind her.
I didn't want to startle her from getting to close. As she aimed at the target, her hands finally stopped shaking and I smiled.
She fired her first shot and got excited while I dodged the shell. Once she was comfortable after a few shots, she made a bet with me about who could make the most shots to the head. Soon, she was out of ammo and it was now my turn. This was actually my first time shooting a gun as well, I took the first shot and gained so much adrenaline. I quickly fired through all of the ammo only missing like two head shots. When I turned around, I noticed Kiara was in another booth somewhere.
"Key," I called out to her because I couldn't see her.
"You done?" She asked before she peeked her head back in our booth. "Oh great." She said once she saw that my target came back for me to see. "I couldn't dodge all of these shell casings." She said before she started picking up more from the ground.
I helped her and then put the gun back into the case.
"Time to see who won." Kiara said as she picked up both of our target papers. She examined both for a while before she spoke. "Mal," she whined. "How in the fuck," she said. "I thought it was your first time." She looked over at me and then lightly punched my arm before laying her head on my shoulder and upper arm rubbing over it slightly.
I just smiled down at her happy that she had a good time.
"We gotta come back," she told me as she held the papers and I grabbed the casings and gun case before heading back to the front desk attendant.
"Dinner on me since I lost?" Key offered as we got inside my car.
"We can even go out somewhere if you want, I don't care which."
"Let's go out so it doesn't take up too much time, I wanna paint today" she told me as I smiled over at her.
I'm always happy when she paints because it calms her and she doesn't paint often because everyone wants her to be a doctor. She has the wits for a doctor but it's not what she wants to do essentially.
"Glad to hear that," I said before I relaxed in my seat and pulled out of the parking lot.
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